(29) As they departed from Jericho.--Looking back to Matthew 19:1, which speaks of our Lord having departed "beyond Jordan," we may believe that He crossed the river with His disciples at the ford near Jericho (Joshua 2:7). On this assumption, the imagery of Matthew 20:22 may have been in part suggested by the locality. The river recalled the memory of His first baptism, by water; that led on to the thought of the more awful baptism of agony and blood.

Verses 29-34. - Healing of two blind men at Jericho. (Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43.) The miracle narrated in this passage is common to the three synoptists, but with some remarkable differences, not one of them agreeing altogether in details. St. Matthew speaks of two blind men, St. Luke and St. Mark of one only, and the latter mentions this one by name as Bartimaeus. St. Matthew and St. Mark make the miracle performed as Jesus quitted Jericho; St. Luke assigns it to the approach to the city. Thus the number of the cured and the locality of the miracle are alike variously stated. It is an easy solution to say, with St. Augustine, Lightfoot, and Greswell, that two, or perhaps three, distinct facts are here related; and it is not absolutely impossible. though altogether improbable, that in the same locality, under identical circumstances, like sufferers made the same request, and received the same relief in the same manner. But we are not driven to this extravagant hypothesis; and the unity of the narrative can be preserved without doing violence to the language of the writers. As to the number of the blind men, we have seen the same discrepancy in the case of the demoniacs at Gadara solved by supposing that one of the two was the more remarkable and better known than the other. Hence, in this incident, the tradition followed by some of the synoptists preserved the memory of this one alone, who may have become known in the Christian community as a devoted follower of Jesus, the other passing into obscurity and being heard of no more. Another hypothesis is that a single blind man first addressed Christ as he entered Jericho, but was not cured at that time. Jesus passed that night in the city at the house of Zacchreus (Luke 19:1-10); and on the morrow, when leaving Jericho, was again entreated by the blind man, who meantime had been joined by a companion, and healed them both. There are other solutions offered, e.g., that there were two Jerichos - an old and a new town - and that one blind man was healed as they entered one city, and the other as they left the other; or that the term rendered "was come nigh" (Luke 18:35) might mean "was nigh," and might therefore apply to one who was leaving as well as to one entering the city. But we weary ourselves in vain in seeking to harmonize every little detail in the Gospel narratives. No two, much less three, independent witnesses would give an identical account of an incident, especially one which reached some of them only by hearsay. Inspiration extends not to petty circumstances, and the credibility of the gospel depends not on the rectification of such minutiae. Verse 29. - Jericho. The Lord was on his way to Jerusalem to meet the death which he was willing to undergo, and to win the victory which he was by this path to accomplish. His route lay through Jericho, as the march of his forerunner Joshua had led. Joshua had set forth to conquer the promised land; Jesus sets forth to win his promised inheritance by the sword of the Spirit. "The upland pastures of Peraea were now behind them," says Dr. Geikie, speaking of the approach to Jericho ('The Life of Christ,' 2:384), "and the road led down to the sunken channel of the Jordan, and the 'divine district' of Jericho. This small but rich plain was the most luxuriant spot in Palestine. Sloping gently upwards from the level of the Dead Sea, 1350 feet under the Mediterranean, to the stern background of the hills of Quarantana, it had the climate of Lower Egypt, and displayed the vegetation of the tropics. Its fig trees were pre-eminently famous; it was unique in its growth of palms of various kinds: its crops of dates were a proverb; the balsam plant, which grew principally here, furnished a costly perfume, and was in great repute for healing wounds; maize yielded a double harvest; wheat ripened a whole month earlier than in Galilee, and innumerable bees found a paradise in the many aromatic flowers and plants, not a few unknown elsewhere, which filled the air with odours and the landscape with beauty. Rising like an amphitheatre from amidst this luxuriant scene, lay Jericho, the chief place east of Jerusalem, at seven or eight miles distant from the Jordan, on swelling slopes, seven hundred feet above the bed of the river, from which its gardens and groves, thickly interspersed with mansions, and covering seventy furlongs from north to south, and twenty from east to west, were divided by a strip of wilderness. The town had had an eventful history. Once the stronghold of the Canaanites, it was still, in the days of Christ, surrounded by towers and castles. A great stone aqueduct of eleven arches brought a copious supply of water to the city, and the Roman military road ran through it. The houses themselves, however, though showy, were not substantial, but were built mostly of sun-dried bricks, like those of Egypt; so that now, as in the similar case of Babylon, Nineveh, or Egypt, after long desolation, hardly a trace of them remains." A great multitude. A vast crowd of pilgrims, bound for Jerusalem to keep the Passover, accompanied Jesus and his disciples. The number of people that this great festival attracted to the central place of worship seems to us incredibly large. Josephus ('Bell. Jud.,' 6:09. 3) reckons them at three millions. Doubtless our Lord was followed by many of those whom he had benefited, and others whom he had won by his teaching; and these, at any rate, would witness the ensuing miracle.

Parallel Commentaries ...


[As] they
αὐτῶν (autōn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.

were leaving
ἐκπορευομένων (ekporeuomenōn)
Verb - Present Participle Middle or Passive - Genitive Masculine Plural
Strong's 1607: From ek and poreuomai; to depart, be discharged, proceed, project.

Jericho,
Ἰεριχὼ (Ierichō)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 2410: Jericho, a city a little north of the Dead Sea. Of Hebrew origin; Jericho, a place in Palestine.

a large
πολύς (polys)
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 4183: Much, many; often.

crowd
ὄχλος (ochlos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3793: From a derivative of echo; a throng; by implication, the rabble; by extension, a class of people; figuratively, a riot.

followed
ἠκολούθησεν (ēkolouthēsen)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 190: To accompany, attend, follow. Properly, to be in the same way with, i.e. To accompany.

Him.
αὐτῷ (autō)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.


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NT Gospels: Matthew 20:29 As they went out from Jericho (Matt. Mat Mt)